This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application entitled Device and Method for Assembling Base and Main Board Assembly earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the Sep. 19, 1998, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 38883/1998, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive, and more particularly to a device and a method for assembling a base and a main board assembly together.
2. Related Art
Generally, hard disk drives are mainly used as an auxiliary recording data storage unit. Such hard disk drives will be steadily used even in the future by virtue of their useful functions. Current developments of the peripheral environment of computers result in intensive competition for technical developments of hard disk drives with a larger capacity and a higher processing speed.
A hard disk drive is a precise product composed of electronic units and mechanical units. In such a hard disk drive, electrical signal information is magnetized on a magnetic recording medium so that corresponding information is recorded on the magnetic recording medium. Magnetic signals recorded on the magnetic recording medium are read out in the form of electrical signal information.
Computer systems are information handling systems that are utilized by many individuals and businesses today. A computer system can be defined as a microcomputer that includes a central processing unit (CPU), a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM), a display monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or other input device such as a trackball, a floppy diskette drive, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) drive, a modem, a hard disk storage device, and a printer. A computer system""s main board, which is a printed circuit board known as a motherboard, is used to electrically connect these components together. A computer system can be a desktop computer, a personal computer, a portable computer such as a notebook computer or palm-sized computer, or other type of computer.
A hard disk storage device can also be referred to as a hard disk drive containing a hard disk, wherein the hard disk is the actual storage medium. A platter is another term for a hard disk. The hard disk drive is an auxiliary memory unit of the computer system. The hard disk drive contains components enabling data to be received from the associated computer system and then written to the hard disk, and also enabling data to be read from the hard disk and then transmitted to the associated computer system. The hard disk drive includes a magnetic read/write head which flies above the surface of the hard disk while the hard disk is rotating.
The hard disk has a plurality of concentric tracks for storing data. Each track has a plurality of sectors. Some hard disk drives contain several hard disks, each hard disk being horizontally mounted on one shared vertical spindle-axis, so that the hard disks form a stack of hard disks. When a disk drive has a plurality of hard disks, with each disk having its own read/write head, every read/write head is aligned on a separate track of its associated hard disk. A head actuator locks all the heads together so that all heads are at the same position from the center of the disk along a given radius. The vertical stack of tracks formed by such an arrangement is referred to as a cylinder. The number of cylinders in a hard disk drive is the same as the number of tracks on a hard disk of that hard disk drive.
A primary function of the hard disk drive is to receive data from the associated computer system, write the data onto the hard disk without loss of the data, and then read and transmit the data to the computer system when necessary. Therefore, a manufacturer of the hard disk drive not only makes an effort to maximize data recording capacity, but also looks for various means to prevent data loss when writing and reading the data.
Hard disk drives typically include one or more magnetic disks defining a multiplicity of concentric data tracks. Each data track is divided into sectors with intersector gaps therebetween, and each sector is subdivided into a data sector and a servo sector. The data sectors are used for the storage of main data or user information. The servo sectors are used for the storage of control data such as automatic gain control (AGC) data, track addresses, and tracking servo patterns for use in position a head. Magnetic disk drives having high data density generally rely upon servo control systems for moving a selected transducer (head) from a departure track to a destination track location when data information is written or read from the disk.
I have found that a coupling of a magnetic head of a hard disk drive to a main board via a base can be extremely inconvenient due to the types of connectors and the number of connectors required. Efforts have been made to improve disk drives.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,184 for MODULAR DISK DRIVE ASSEMBLY OPERATIVELY MOUNTABLE IN INDUSTRY STANDARD EXPANSION BAYS OF PERSONAL DESKTOP COMPUTERS issued to Rabinovitz; U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,582 for MINIATURE HARD DISK DRIVE SYSTEM issued to White et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,496 for AIR-TIGHT CONNECTOR ASSEMBLY issued to Kilmer et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,402 for HARD DISK DRIVE MOUNTING ASSEMBLY FOR A COMPUTER issued to Jeong; U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,080 for REMOVABLE HARD DISK DRIVE SYSTEM WITH CIRCUIT FOR HOT INSERTION AND REMOVAL RESPONSIVE TO CONTACTS OF ZERO-INSERTION-FORCE CONNECTOR ON THE LATERAL SIDE OF THE DRIVE issued to Fasig et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,513 for HARD DISK DRIVE AND CASING SLIDABLY RECEIVED WITHIN FRAME HAVING DOUBLE-SWINGING DOOR AND LOCK issued to Lo; U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,455 for PORTABLE COMPUTER HAVING A HARD DISK DRIVE MOUNTED THEREIN issued to Ho; U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,129 for REMOVABLE AND TRANSPORTABLE HARD DISK SUBSYSTEM issued to Blackborow et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,053 for PORTABLE PERSONAL COMPUTER issued to Krenz.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide a conveniently and efficiently improved device and method for assembling a base of a hard disk drive with a main board.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and a primary object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for assembling a base and a main board assembly in a hard disk drive in which a magnetic head is electrically connected to the main board assembly without using a 20 pin of the base and a 20 pin socket of the main board assembly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for assembling a base and a main board assembly, which are advantageous to miniaturization in the size of a hard disk drive.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for assembling a base and a main board assembly, which improve ease of assembly when viewed from a point of a worker.
In order to achieve the above objects and others, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device for assembling a base and a main board assembly in a hard disk drive including an actuator having a magnetic head; a base having a spindle motor mounted thereon, the spindle motor rotating at high speed a disk on which the magnetic head is suspended to conduct data writing and reading; and a main board assembly assembled to a lower surface of the base, the device comprising; a guide section for establishing a vertical assembling position of the base and the main board assembly and for allowing the main board assembly to be capable of a sliding movement to a predetermined location on the base; a stopper section for stopping the sliding movement of the main board assembly on the base; and a locker for locking the main board assembly stopped by the stopper section to the base in a vertical direction.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for assembling a base and a main board assembly in a hard disk drive including an actuator having a magnetic head, the base having a spindle motor mounted thereon, the spindle motor rotating at high speed a disk on which the magnetic head is suspended to conduct data writing and reading, the base possessing at least one position determining projection and at least one stopper projection, and a main board assembly assembled to a lower surface of the base and having an inserting hole which corresponds to the position determining projection, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a vertical assembling position of the base and the main board assembly by inserting the position determining projection of the base into the inserting hole of the main board assembly; sliding the main board assembly on the base to bring one end of the main board assembly into contact with the stopper projection of the base; and locking the main board assembly to the base using a plurality of screws.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising: an assembly unit coupling a board unit to a base of a hard disk drive, said base having a motor mounted thereon to rotate a platter adjacent to a magnetic read/write head of said hard disk drive, said assembly unit further comprising: a guide unit including a projection formed on a first surface of said base to project away from said first surface, guiding said board unit toward said first surface, and guiding said board unit along said first surface up to a predetermined location on said first surface of said base; a stopping unit preventing said board unit from moving beyond said predetermined location when said guide unit is guiding said board unit along said first surface toward said predetermined location; and a locking unit securing said board unit to said base when said board unit is at said predetermined location on said first surface of said base.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a method, comprising: coupling a board unit to a base of a hard disk drive, said base having a motor mounted thereon to rotate a platter adjacent to a magnetic read/write head of said hard disk drive, said base having at least one position determining projection and at least one stopper projection, said board unit forming at least one orifice corresponding to said position determining projection, said coupling further comprising: inserting said at least one position determining projection of said base into the at least one orifice of said board unit; sliding said board unit along said base to bring said board unit into contact with said at least one stopper projection of said base; and locking said board unit to said base.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an assembly apparatus assembling a board unit to a base of a hard disk drive, said apparatus comprising: a hard disk drive having a base and further comprising: an actuator having a magnetic head, said magnetic head conducting data writing and reading operations; and a spindle motor mounted to said base of said hard disk drive, said spindle motor rotating a platter beneath said magnetic head; a guide unit including a projection formed on a first surface of said base to project away from said first surface, guiding said board unit toward said first surface in a first direction perpendicular to said first surface, and guiding said board unit along said first surface in a second direction parallel to said first surface up to a predetermined location on said first surface of said base; a stopping unit preventing said board unit from moving in said second direction beyond said predetermined location when said guide unit is guiding said board unit along said first surface toward said predetermined location; and a locking unit securing said board unit to said base when said board unit is at said predetermined location on said first surface of said base.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example. Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.